Pentagon: U.S. strike in Somalia hits militants on verge of major attack

March 7, 2016 / 1:04 PM
/ CBS/AP

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon says a U.S. strike on Saturday struck a training camp for al-Shabab fighters in Somalia who were preparing to launch a large-scale attack.

CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the Pentagon says the fighters were in the final stages of planning an attack against the African Union Mission in Somalia, which includes U.S. personnel.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, says the strike hit Raso Camp, killing more than 150 fighters. He says the U.S. was watching the camp for weeks. He says it appeared that the training was ending and the operational phase of a suspected attack was about to start.

Davis says the training camp, about 120 miles north of Mogadishu, was destroyed.

The al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab has been linked to a number of attacks, including the detonation of a bomb aboard a commercial passenger jet last month that forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, a bomb exploded in a piece of luggage at an airport in a central Somali town, wounding three people, a police official said Monday.

The bomb went off at a checkpoint as soldiers searched through bags before passengers were allowed to board, said Ahmed Nur, a police official in the town of Beledweyne, where the incident happened Monday. An African Union peacekeeper was among the wounded, he said.

Officials told CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues they have been informed that not only was there a laptop explosive but two other explosives were found as well and defused. One was found in a printer and the other in an unknown device. U.S. Officials tell Pegues it is yet another sign of a "reinvigorated effort to use this type of tactic."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but it bore the hallmarks of al-Shabab.